International Law And The Violence Of Non-State Actors

10.1163/ej.9789004175877.i-594.83

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Chapter Summary

For the most part, in their earliest incarnation, the laws of war concerned the violence of States as executed against one another. The historical focus of the jus in bello on States and State actors is repeated in respect of the jus ad bellum, where the cardinal prohibition of Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter concerns the undertaking of Member States of the United Nations to 'refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations. Perhaps a good impression of how public international law has taken some cognizance of the practice of non-State actors under the jus ad bellum arises from the International Court of Justice's definition of an armed attack in its judgment in the Nicaragua Case in June 1986.